Method of treating dough.



L. EMBREY.

METHOD OF TREATING DOUGH.

APPLICATION mm was. 1914.

1,179,294. Patented Apr. 11, 1916.

2 SHE-ETSSHEET I.

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L. EMBREY.

METHOD OF TREATING DOUGH.

APPLICATION mm AUG.6. I9l4.

1,179,294. Patented Apr. 11,1916.

2 S HEETSSHEET 2.

l I l KW ormyl LAURENCE EMBBEY, OF COUNTY OF STAFFORD, ENGLAND.

METHOD OF TREATING DOUGH.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 11, 1916.

Application flied August 8, 1914. Serial No. 855,469.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it lmown that I, LAURENCE EMBnnY, subject of the King of GreatBritain, residing in Stafiordshire, England, have invented a certain newand useful Improved Method of Treating Dough, of which the following isa specification.

This invention relates to an improved method of treating dough used forthe making of loaves, rolls andlike bread, that 18 to say doughcontaining in addition to the flour, water and salt, a 'ferment, such asyeast, or what is known in the bakery trade as sponge. The dough isprepared in any usual way by mixing flour, water and ferment, and isthen allowed to stand for some time till it is ready, that is to sayuntil the ferment has grown to some considerable extent. The action ofthe ferment is to form a cellular structure, the contents of the cellsbeing moisture and gas and the walls of the cells being formedprincipally of gluten. To facilitate the formation of these cell wallsand increase their number I have found that the,gluten should be wellstretched without p ckering.

According to this nvention the gluten of dough containing a erment isstretched by applying tension to piece of dough from within the mass tereof. The method preferably employed i o coil the dough around acentral spindle. 1

The treatment (if dough in the process known as molding has hithertoembodied a kneading operation in which rollers or other moving membershave applied pressure to the exterior of a mass or clot of dough. Thiskneading or external working of the mass has been effected mostsuccessfully by hand, and with a skilful operator satisfactory resultsmay be obtained. Mechanical means have also been tried but so far as Iam aware they all act externally on the dough. The beneficial effect ofkneading is that the gluten is stretched and in this stretched state, itfacilitates the formation of cells during the process of proving. It isthus of importance to stretch the gluten and keep it stretched duringproving. In other words there must be no puckering of ,the dough as thisdoes not produce light palatable bread.

According to this invention I impart a permanent stretch to the doughand avoid all puckering.

The invention may be applied by mechanical means and will be heredescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figures 1 to 3 illustrate one form of machine for stretching and shapingdough in small pieces, such as used in the making of loaves, rolls orthe like. Figs. 1 and 2 are sectional elevations on the lines II, II-II,Fig. 3 which is a plan, from which however, some parts are omitted forsake of clearness. Figs. 4: to 8 illustrate suitable forms of guide orshaping rollers which may be used.

In carrying out the invention according to one mode, for instance in thetreating of dough in small pieces ready for making loaves, rolls or thelike, a rotating spindle is adapted for the moving member which is toengage with and stretch the dough. This spindle in the exampleillustrated in Figs. 1 to 3 is conveniently made in two contiguous partsa a. The part a is rotated by a fast pulley b which together with aloose pulley c, is carried by a sleeve (1 on the end of the spindle a,the latter having a keyway f in which slides a key 6 fixed in the sleeve(1 so that although the spindle a may be recip rocated in the sleeve itis bound to rotate with the same. The sleeve (1 is convenientlysupported in a boss 7 in the main frame h and has a retaining collar i.The parta of the spindle is rotated at the same speed as the part athrough the medium of toothed wheels 70, l, 0 and 7). The wheels A and7; are provided with bores of square cross section so that they arecaused to rotate with the respective parts a a of the spindle, whichexcept in the case of the outer portion of the part a are of squarecross section. The toothed wheels I and 0 are mounted on the spindle mof a roller 11, the spindle being carried by the frame h. A toothedwheel 8 also on the spindle m meshes with a toothed wheel t on thespindle 11 of another roller 9. Part of the roller 9 and the wheel t areomitted in Fig. 3 for sake of clearness. A pair of levers 'v pivotedfreely on the spindle m and connected by a cross bar y forming acounterweight, carry a spindle w for a freely rotatable guide roller:17. A similar freely rotatable guide roller 2 is mounted on a spindle 2carried by a pair of levers 3 pivoted at 4, 4, and provided with acounterweight 5.

The two parts a a of the winding spindle are adapted to be periodicallymoved away from and toward each other by means of a cam 6, mounted on aspindle 7, rotated by a worm 8 through which the spindle a can slide,the worm engaging with a worm wheel 9. A slot 10 in the cam receives apin 11 carried by an extension 12 on a lever 13 having a fulcrum 14. Oneend of the lever 13 engages with a pin 15 carried by a plate 16 heldbetween two collars 17, 17 secured to the part a of the winding spindle.A link 19 is connected at 18 to the lever 13 and at 20 to a lever 21pivoted at one end 22 and engaging at its other end with a. pin 23carried by a plate 21 held between two collars 25, 25, fixed on the parta of the spindle. The levers 13 and 21 are slotted at 26 adjacent totheir fulcrum so that when the cam 6 rotates, the levers are free tomove together outwardly and inwardly periodically to move the parts a aof the winding spindle away from and toward each other.

The operation of the machine above described is as follows: A piece ofdough 33 placed on a sloping table is fed by the rollers 11. q in theform of a strip 31 which is either directly engaged by grippers 30 onthe spindle a a or is guided thereon by the roller m. The feedingrollers n q are preferably of unglazed porcelain, biscuit ware or likematerial to which the dough is not likely to adhere, but to avoidadherence of the strip, scrapers 31, 31 may be provided. \Vhen thewinding spindle a a engages with the strip it winds it up as indicatedin Fig. 1, and thereby applies tension to the strip from within outward,that is to say, the whole of the gluten both within and on the outerlayers of the dough is stretched. The freely rotatable rollers a: and 2are lightly pressed back by the dough against the action of theircounterweights, so that they apply sufficient pressure to prevent anyslackness or puckering of the dough or in other words, help to maintainthe dough under tension. Any desired number of these tension rollers maybe used. In order that they may be held out of contact with the bar whenno dough is thereon, suitable stops are provided to limit their inwardmovement, the stops being conveniently in the form of friction wheels28, 28, with which the rollers engage, the diameter of these wheelsbeing approximately equal to that of the greatest diameter of the pathdescribed by the grippers 30 so that contact with the grippers is justavoided. The rollers 00 a: may be of any desired shape or form in orderthat they may be used to shape the dough wound on the bar, for instance,any of the forms indicated in Figs. 4 to 8 may be adopted for them. Whenthe strip has been applied to the interior of the dough as well as theexterior.

By winding dough in the manner de scribed without or with theapplication of a light exterior pressure by means of movable rollers, aconstant tension is maintained throughout the dough, incontradistinction to the effect produced by known devices in which amoving hand is used with the intention of rolling a piece of dough on astationary surface, in which case the stationary surface produces a lagon the dough, while the moving band applied to the opposite part orsection thereof presses the same forward and causes buckling orpuckering of the dough so that no tension is actually applied to theinterior thereof and the resulting loaf when baked is defective. Thelight external pressure upon the dough during coiling causes thestretched superposed layers to adhere to one another and thereby thetension in the dough is maintained.

I claim:

1. The method of treating dough containing ferment which consists informing the dough into a strip, coiling said strip under tensionaround-a central spindle to apply tension to the dough from within themass thereof, and then leaving the ferment to act upon the dough sostretched.

2. The method of treating dough containing ferment which consists informing the dough into a strip, winding said dough on a spindle by arotary movement of the spindle, separating the wound dough and spindleby a relative axial movement and proving the dough so wound.

3. The method of treating dough to assist proving which consists informing said dough into a strip, coiling said strip around a spindle,whereby tension is applied to the dough from within the mass, andapplying a light external pressure to cause superposed layers of thecoil to adhere and thereby maintain the dough in tension.

4. The method of treating dough to as sist proving which consists informing said dough into a strip, coiling said strip around In testimonywhereof I have signed my a spindle, whereby tension is applied to thename to thls specification 1n the presence of dough from within themass, applying a two SllbSCllblIlg witnesses.

light external pressure to cause superposed LAURENCE EMBREY. layers ofthe C01l to adhere and thereby \V1tnesses: maintain the dough 1ntension, and finally VIXUQXT FLACKETT,

shaping the tension mass t f'w'ni a lof. Flux]; MADsLEY.

